One of the things I noticed when designing the gearboxes for Fleabite is that the motors are very fast and low on torque.
Looking through my gear motors I found some with the same height and width but twice the length which from the sound run much slower and appear to be more powerful.
Also having a long shaft you can mount the motor drive gear plus one of the intermediate gears and the output gear all in line.
This means you just have one other axle with two intermediate gears on it to complete the gearbox.
Below you can see the type of gearbox the motor comes from plus the motors long shaft and the gearing arrangement.
Here is the finished gearbox with wheels which comes out to 70 mm total length and 18 gms. (11.7 gms without the wheels and Tyres.)

Last edited by peterwaller on Fri Jul 21, 2017 7:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

As per the question in the rules on clusters I thought I had better not put the progress in the rules debate.
I think I have solved the problem of detaching using a tiny 2 gm servo on each botlet.
The botlets look to be coming out at about 28 gms leaving almost 20 gms for the tether / weapon.

Its interesting. "Can detach from each other, but chose not to for the whole fight." I guess that falls into tactics rather than rules. Similar to keeping one half of a cluster out of the way to bring in only if the other half fails to win.
What's your thinking, Peter? I'm guessing some sort of tether so one half can rescue the other from the pits.by pulling them out?

The Idea is not yet fully developed but the tether would also be the weapon.

I can't show you a photo as my daughter has borrowed my camera but here is what I have so far.
Using the RX47 receiver/controller boards from DelTang I can program the second botlet to to respond to the left stick and add mixing to make it easier to control.
Easier being a relative term with two robots and my driving but as Dave has said I could haul one out of the pit with the other. (I hadn't thought of that)

Last edited by peterwaller on Fri Jul 21, 2017 7:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Finally got one of the two robots built and running it weighs in at 31gms.
I have had one or two issues with my homemade gearboxes but they seem to be running now.
Here it is :
Here is the underside showing the servo that will release the tether / weapon which is as yet undesigned:
Here it is in action:https://youtu.be/P7eLaF4-1Do

Last edited by peterwaller on Fri Jul 21, 2017 7:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I now have two robots but am having slight problems with the Tx.
My original idea was to modify the left stick on one of my MLP4DSM transmitters with the parts from another so it spring centered.
Forgetting I needed a fifth channel to release the tether.
I had a quick look inside the MLP4DSM but couldn't see any obvious way to to add a fifth channel.
I am now trying to 3D print the bits for my DX5e to enable that to center on all 4 channels.

This is going to be funny enough without that although I could glue the two transmitters together.
I have now 3D printed the new parts plus a shortened spring and now have a DX5e with all four channels centering.
Still can't control two robots at the same time but that was to be expected.
Just need to finish the tether / weapon I have tried various fold out stiff arrangements but am now looking at a chain based one.

Last edited by peterwaller on Fri Jul 21, 2017 7:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.